Searching for Stillness (Virtual Version)

The project consists of a thematic website and a series of face-to-face workshops. From the website, the team presents various parts of the funeral via various media, allowing visitors to explore the history, significance and connotation of a funeral rituals. The workshops function as a follow-up to the content of the website, in which participants are engaged in exchanges on the topics of life, death, loss and separation. In addition, the participants are facilitated to create their own music and to better understand their own funeral etiquette preferences via various musical activities. The project team hopes to explore the application of non-verbal art forms and to promote the concept of “Personalised Funeral” to the public.

Tang Cheuk-man

Tang Cheuk-man graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Visual Arts. In 2017, she was awarded a Summer Musical Camp Scholarship by Goldsmiths, University of London for a short-term musical theatre training in UK. Tang has recently involved in various alternative theatrical performances, including The Story of Yim Tin Tsai – Environmental Theatre (2019) organised by Yim Tin Festival, and Open A Room – Gaze (2020), an interactive online performance.

In 2017, Tang curated a micro-multimedia theatre showcase entitled Searching for Stillness to explore the meanings of death and the ritual possibilities. She was endorsed again in 2020 for the second run to be held in early 2021.

DIY Personalised Funeral: Understanding Funeral Rites through Interactive Arts Activities

This project extends the creative team’s effort in relating art and funeral rites from the physical theatre to the digital platform. By inviting the participants to examine the history, meaning and content of the funeral rites, it is hoped that they can reflect upon the subject of “death” through the activities and to become more open and receptive to the education of life lessons. In addition, the project also includes introduction and behind-the-scenes records of the music workshop. The viewer can explore the various options of the funeral rites through the written words, photos and documentaries, and hence ruminate on a “personalised funeral” of their own.

1. Funeral-themed Experience Website

Based on the re-run version of Searching for Stillness, funeral rituals of different kinds are presented as 6 games in the following order: Burial Method (Sea Burial, Cremation, Coffin Burial), Portrait, Flowers, Music, Eulogy and Columbarium. After participants completed the whole game, they will be given a “funeral preview” to experience a “personalised funeral”. In addition, participants can use a QR code to return to the burial site of their choice and observe a 3-day journey after death.

2. Musical Workshop

The production team partnered with Pak Tin Baptist Church Neighborhood Centre to conduct a music workshop in mid-2021. Workshop participants joined a series of 5 workshops, each lasting for 1.5 hours. The instructors led participants to experience music activities in various formats, and guide them to share their life experiences and stories. At the final stages of the workshop, participants were facilitated to create an original music work collectively.

3. Original Song

As a conclusion of the workshop, instructors will create an original song for each participant based on their observations. The song will be released on different online platforms to promote the idea of a “personalised funeral”.

Searching for Stillness (Virtual Version)